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Lebanese militant leader killed in Israeli raid in Syria - Hezbollah

An Israeli air strike killed Samir Qantar, a Hezbollah militant leader, in Damascus on Saturday evening, the Lebanese group and Syrian state media said on Sunday. Israel welcomed Qantar's death, saying he had been preparing attacks on it from Syrian soil, but stopped short of confirming responsibility for the strike that killed him.
A former national security adviser to Israel said he doubted the strike would escalate hostilities between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah, whose last major confrontation was in 2006.
Israel has formally kept out of Syria's civil war which started almost five years ago but has bombed Hezbollah targets there without publicly acknowledging these sorties.
Hezbollah, a powerful Shi'ite Muslim group that has sent hundreds of fighters to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad against rebels trying to topple him, said Qantar was "martyred" in an Israeli raid on the residential district of Jaramana in the Syrian capital, but gave no details.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was due to speak on Monday evening as both supporters of the group and Syrian loyalist groups said the death of Qantar would be avenged and not be in vain.
Jailed in Israel for his part in a 1979 raid in Israel that killed four people, Qantar, a Druze, was repatriated to Lebanon in 2008 in a prisoner swap with Hezbollah, which he is then believed to have joined.
Yaakov Amidror, Israel's former national security adviser, predicted Hezbollah would seek to exact "small revenge" for Qantar's killing, but said Hezbollah, like Iran, was likely too busy fighting in Syria to afford a new front with Israel.
"It would not be in their interest, and if they did so, they would have a big problem," Amidror said, alluding to Israel's threats to respond to any major Hezbollah attack with strikes in Lebanon.
Hezbollah's official media said Qantar would be buried on Monday in a Shi'ite cemetery in its main stronghold of Dahiya in the southern suburbs of Beirut. The party opened a condolences hall to receive the public.
"Such acts of the Zionist regime (Israel), which have become a consistent method, are the most dangerous forms of state terrorism," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted as saying by Iran's ILNA news agency.
Syrian Information Minister Omran al Zubi pointed the finger at Israel but fell short of blaming it directly.
"The party that gains most from the assassination of Qantar is the Zionist enemy whom we have long known for these cowardly attacks," Zubi told Hezbollah's Manar television station.
Official Syrian media said an Israeli aerial strike hit a six-storey residential building in Jaramana.
EXPLOSIONS
"I am not confirming or denying anything to do with this matter," Israeli Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Gallant told Israel Radio, adding: "It is good that people like Samir Qantar will not be part of our world."
Qantar, born in 1962, kept a low public profile after Israel released him. Hezbollah did not say which role Qantar played in the Syrian conflict, but Syrian state media said he was involved in a major offensive earlier this year in Quneitra, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Rebels in southern Syria also said Qantar was present in battles this year to defend a Syrian air base near the Druze majority city of Sweida, close to the border with Jordan, that rebels sought to capture.
Reuters could not independently verify this.
Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked accused Qantar of overseeing covert Hezbollah entrenchment on the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau overlooking northeastern Israel.
"He set up a broad terror network on the Golan, and it is good that he returned his soul to his creator," Shaked told Israel's Army Radio, without elaborating on any Israeli role.
The Assad loyalist National Defence Forces in Jaramana, a bastion of government support and home to many of Syria's Druze minority as well as Christians, mourned Qantar on its Facebook page.
"Two Israeli warplanes carried out the raid which targeted the building in Jaramana and struck the designated place with four long-range missiles," the NDF said.
In January, an Israeli strike in Syria killed six members of Hezbollah, including a commander and the son of the group's late military leader Imad Moughniyah near the Golan Heights.
(Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Beirut; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Dominic Evans)

Released Lebanese prisoner Samir Qantar uses a pair of binoculars to look at the village of Majd

Shams, under Israeli occupation, during a rally at Ain al-Tineh village on the Syrian side in the Golan Heights, in the Israeli-occupied area in the 1967 war, in this November...

"No need to say more...I, for one, do not care one iota about being politically correct, I do call it as I see it without no fear, and those who get their feeling hurt by such truth I say to them:" GO CRY ME A RIVER" "-Beirutilibnani

The Right To Do Something Does Not Mean It Is Right. (William Safire)

Every piece of this is man's bullshit. They call this war a cloud over the land. But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say 'Shit, it's raining!'

Long overdue and a waste of high-tech, a knife in the gut while he was in jail (instead of Israeli uni degrees) would've been better, cheaper, safer, smarter and would've spared the Israeli tax payer this burden.... Nevertheless: Good riddance, 2ila l ja7im wa ba2s el ma9ir and let this piece of scum be a cautionary tale for all the naive Israelis who think the Druze are their friends.

Long overdue and a waste of high-tech, a knife in the gut while he was in jail (instead of Israeli uni degrees) would've been better and would've spared the Israeli tax payer this burden.... Nevertheless: Good riddance, 2ila el ja7im wa ba2s el ma9ir and let this piece of scum be a cautionary tale for all the naive Israelis who think the Druze are their friends.

I really admire you understanding of Middle Eastern people's mentality..

And even prime minister Begin and others were fooled and used to help Druz sometimes.

@Semitic Duwa, I'm under the impression that Druze are loyal to the countries in which they reside; it's how they avoid conflict with ruling majorities and how they survived for so long as a small community. If I remember correctly, Druze leaders have always urged their communities to do just that. Why would Israeli Druze not be loyal to Israel, then?

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." --Oscar Wilde

I really admire you understanding of Middle Eastern people's mentality..

And even prime minister Begin and others were fooled and used to help Druz sometimes.

Kas you are joking or you should be.
In 60 plus years of partnership of Jews and Druze in Israel has there ever been such a story of the Kuntar a Lebanese Druze terrorist.
Emphasis on Terrorist first and foremost the latter is not important at least to those he killed in cold blood.
No Israeli is fooled by what you believe is true about them and no one helps the Druze "Sometimes".The Druze are loyal people who have shouldered the burden of defending Israel for over 65 years.
You wish to say what you say about Lebanese Druze that is your right but you do not have the right to disparage a people who have given their lives and blood in defense of the Jewish People and the State of Israel.

@Semitic Duwa, I'm under the impression that Druze are loyal to the countries in which they reside;

They reside in Lebanon and they fought against the Lebanese republic.
they reside in Lebanon and they sided with the Palestinians against Lebanese the days of Kamal Jumblat...
They resided in Lebanon and they sided with the occupying Syrian army against our people.
They reside in Lebanon and they killed Lebanese army men in the thousands in the Jabal war..
The Druz high ranking lebanese army officer Captain Sekarieh was sent to the Shehar Gharbi by the Lebanese army to protect Christian villagers from getting extinct, and what he did was slaughter his fellow officers and soldiers in the hundreds.....then he slaughtered the villagers he was suppose to protect....

So I am not going to argue with u about this, stay in the dark good for you.

No need to be sorry @Kasarjian
You understand that the tenets of the Druze (Druz) faith is secret so I am certain you don't know anything about the religion either.
You have said much about Druze murdering people in bed.....maybe in Lebanon they do, but in Israel they die in the service of the Jewish State and you my friend are not in the position to school me in the subject.
Druze and the Jews share common cause and have done so since the beginning of the State.

Sergeant-Major Zidan Saif, 30, of the Druse village of Kfar Yanouch in the Galilee,died defending Rabbis.Police Commissioner Danino, in a moving speech, said that Mr Saif 'ran into the heart of the murderous inferno, without fear, without concern' and that the people of Israel 'owe him a great debt' . 83% of Druze serve in the IDF. Of these, 40% are combat soldiers
.

This man Madhat Yusuf, a Druze soldier died defending Joseph of the Bibles Tomb.
Blood seals the deal for me @Kasarjian not sorrowful tales from across the border.

One more thing I know nothing about the tenets of the faith because it is a secret religion limited the tenets of the Druze religion are secret and mysterious, even to many Druze themselves, since the faith allows only a limited number of elite men and sometimes women, called uqqal("the enlightened"), to study and learn all of its aspects.@Kasarjian are you equal to "the enlightened" No...I did not think so.
That said the history of the people from it's beginnings has been an interest of mine so I don't believe I need any help here.

@Semitic Duwa, I'm under the impression that Druze are loyal to the countries in which they reside; it's how they avoid conflict with ruling majorities and how they survived for so long as a small community. If I remember correctly, Druze leaders have always urged their communities to do just that. Why would Israeli Druze not be loyal to Israel, then?

Like you said, you're under the "impression" that the Druze are loyal to the countries in which they reside... And that's about it really, an impression. The Druze put on this show about how loyal they are and some even claim that they'd be willing to kill their fellow Druze for their country's sake, but this is just a huge smokescreen.

The fact of the matter is that the Druze are sectarian at the core, throughout the 1st war in Lebanon Druze servicemen channeled weaponry and equipment to their Lebanese brethren and some even left the IDF for a time just to gang up on the christians during 7arb el jabal (technically-speaking, that means they were allied to the Palestinians as well). They have a long history of anti-Jewish (and anti-Christian) violence in fact, just read about their vicious pogroms against the Jews of Safed in 1834 and 1838... If you think they've changed, you're in for a shock. Take Peqi3in, a village famous mostly because the Jews have maintained a continuous presence there since time immemorial, much like the Samaritans they never left the land of Israel... Until the Druze majority drove out the village's last Jewish family by sacking this family's house and torching their car, and this didn't happen 100 years ago, no, this happened just 8 years ago in 2007 (again, this is similar to how the Samaritans were driven out of Shkhem by their jarab neighbours during the first "Intifada"). Keep in mind that most of the Druze in Peqi3in work in the army, police force or in Israeli jails, and yet they were quick to riot and shoot at Israeli border guards during the aforementioned riots.

All these Galilean & Carmelite Druze serving in the army, all this talk of loyalty to the state, these are all smokescreens and mirrors, this is just a marriage of convenience and the Druze know perfectly well how to take advantage of the Jews' willingness to accept them as loyal friends and allies. Make no mistake, the Druze are always gauging and exploring alternatives to the current state of cooperation with Israel. You can also be sure that, deep inside, they have no special love for the Jews and Israel... In fact, the Golan Druze are quite open about it: For years, naive Israelis scratched their heads in total disarray whenever they'd hear or see Golani Druze openly state their love of Assad's Syria and their desire to wipe Israel off the map. For decades, the common excuse was that they didn't want to be perceived as traitors, just in case the Golan heights were "returned" to Syria... And yet they're still professing their support towards Assad's nazi regime despite the fact that Syria doesn't exist anymore.
Truth be told, their hatred of Israel and Assadism is completely genuine from an ideological standpoint, the Golan Druze are just more honest than the Galilean and Carmelite Druze.

So there's that, on the other hand there's a different dimension to this Druze problem, a more general one... I'm talking about their situation as a stateless minority. There are about 2 million Druze out there, like I said they have a long history of anti-Jewish and anti-Christian violence, and this history inscribes itself within a longer history of semi-autonomous rule and subsequent uprising and revolt. Much like the Kurds, there's something fishy going on here: Despite all their willingness to fight, they have no independent state of their own. The way I see things, they behave like regular muslim jarabs, albeit in a more secretive and covert way.
If there's anything to be learnt from their history, it's that they simply cannot be trusted.